


Poetry in Motion

by deskclutter



Category: Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney
Genre: Community: 31_days, Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-25
Updated: 2010-06-25
Packaged: 2017-10-10 06:36:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deskclutter/pseuds/deskclutter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phoenix Wright beards the lion in its den. (By 'lion' we mean 'Mia's books' and by 'den' we mean 'the Wright & Co. Office')</p>
            </blockquote>





	Poetry in Motion

**Title:** Poetry in Motion  
**Day/Theme:** Feb. 24 / I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned  
**Series:** Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright  
**Character/Pairing:** Phoenix, Maya  
**Rating:** G

  
Winter carved poets out of ordinary people. Phoenix Wright had noted the phenomenon himself, while he'd been working a case -- a case that had quite possibly been the most important case of his life -- and even then the faint dribbles of poetic wax had slithered free out his mouth.

On winter days coupled with boredom (because there was only so much professionalism one could maintain when faced by a silent phone for hours on end...) it was best not to talk about the carnage.

It was when he thought of the window as 'a frost-tarnished mirror of unsurpassed enchantment' -- for the atmosphere of the line because there wasn't a single curl of frost anywhere -- that he realised he had been spending too much time with his legal aide.

In his defence, when one gazed into a glass object, the bellboy in the hotel opposite wasn't usually staring back. So he could be forgiven for thinking Maya had cursed the window for a (very) brief instant.

The sun slanted across the office, draping the office in spotlight. Sort of. If you looked too long at the sun, you saw spots...

Other than that... Well, the phone was still silent.

There was really only so much a man could work with, given the sterile image of a professional law office. Okay, so there was the Steel Samurai poster on the wall, but he wasn't about to put himself in the Steel Samurai's oversized shoes. The Phoenix who conducted his internal monologue shuddered at suppressed memories (which will remain suppressed because they were initially suppressed for a reason oh God the pain...), then continued thumbing through the dustier tomes of his memory. The shadows on the wall grew long; the light that had held court in their places before vanished into thin air. What are shadows on a sunshine day but regimentless kings?

"Then you are, no, not quoting but _mangling_..." Phoenix mumbled under his breath.

But soft! What spiny shade lingers upon the wall? Some vile hellspawn come to wreak havoc on the gentle -- and not so gentle -- citizens of L.A.? A magician's pet come to beg aid for his villainous master (fat hope of that...)? Perhaps the first scout of a beast who had _already infiltrated headquarters_?

Aha! But the intrepid Phoenix has come to protect and ser-- (wait, isn't that Gumshoe's line!?) Uh, to.

To beard the lion in its den! (It doesn't harm anyone if they don't hear it... Or read it... But no one reads my thoughts except me anyway.)

Then the Phoenix turned, and before him was the creature itself! Evil manifest! Evil fogged eyes bore down on the unprepared Phoenix. Alas, oh alack! He bit back a completely manly yelp and sallied forth!

But then the world spun, and a lightheaded dizziness attacked him. What foul sorcery was this!? The printed word swam before his eyes...

"NICK!" cried a voice, shattering his thoughts so shrilly that he jumped and promptly dropped the book onto his foot. Maya rushed in at full speed. "What happened!? Did the Evil Magistrate invade?!?"

"N-no --ow!" said Phoenix, fumbling over his words. "No, no Evil Magistrate he--wait, what?" If an Evil Magistrate _had_ invaded, shouldn't she have been running at full speed _away_ rather than towards him?

"Oh..." Maya said. Why did she sound disappointed? "Then, Nick, why were you screaming?"

"S-screaming?" he said. "Uh. Hey! I don't scream!"

"Sure you don't," she said in an indulgent sort of manner that meant that she thought he did. "I bet Charley's shadow scared you. Geez, you're such a wimp, Nick!" With that parting shot, she went back to looking for the Evil Magistrate or whatever it was that she had been doing.

Phoenix glared at Charley's spiky shadow. "Thanks, Charley," he said. Bending down to pick up the book he'd dropped, he debated the merits of trying to read it again. The dust that had filmed over its spine since Mia's death had shaken off in the fuss. One down -- sort of. He turned to look at the shelves behind his desk. Th-Three hundred and fifty-nine to go. Ha ha. Ha.

Carefully, he slotted the volume back among its brothers. "It's all Greek to me, anyway," he decided.

Winter carved madmen of ordinary people. And then reason came back to slap them into a snowbank of cold, cruel logic regardless of shame or dignity. Phoenix Wright gathered up the remaining shreds of his (dignity, not shame), and limped off. "Maya? If you need me, I'll be cleaning the toilet!" Just as he was going to do the next time he thought cracking open his legal books would be a good idea.

**Author's Note:**

> What Nick does not know is that the bellboy was still watching, and that is how it eventually got back to Edgeworth, who found the incident of great hilarity even without the fine detail.


End file.
